A large number of efficient systems for a testing phase in information system development have been proposed.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-110733 discloses a test-case generating apparatus for generating a script file for testing programs and test data by combining program specifications with a standard script file. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-223040, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-223041, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-223042 disclose a system-test supporting apparatus and the like configured to describe the specification of an application having a GUI section into a specification file or an information file and then to automatically generate a comprehensive test scenario. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-306046 includes a method for generating a test case from tabular functional specifications. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-339193 includes a method for converting an operation specification from an operation specification and initial conditions to generate a test case. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-280231 shows a method of verifying software in which a two-dimensional factor analysis table is generated from program input conditions and operating environment conditions, and then the input conditions and the operating environment conditions are combined to automatically generate a test script.
Various other methods for generating test cases from various unique definition information are shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-259161, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-366387, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-220330, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-115582.
It is known in general information system development that the cost and risk of constructing systems are increased because of the ambiguity and incorrectness of specifications determined in a requirement defining phase. Since the 1970s, attempts to solve these problems have been made by strictly defining systems using formal specification languages. However, this is not broadly used because of high introduction cost. For a functional testing phase, regression testing with higher productivity is generally achieved by using automatic execution tools. However, test scripts for regression testing are generated with the recording function of the tools or by manual coding, posing the problem of taking much time and cost, and that it is impossible to verify whether automatically executed test scripts agree with the original functional requirements (specifications).
The methods of the foregoing patent documents need manual generation of specification files, tubular files, or state transition diagrams based on their unique definitions, which cannot support specification description methods using standardized formal specification languages or Universal Model Language (UML).
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide, in system development using a standardized specification description method with a formal specification language or UML modeling description, a test-script generating apparatus for functional testing which ensures consistency with a specification determined by requirement definition and achieves an efficient method so as to generate a test script without high cost.